
/fxs- 















PEOCEEDINGS 


OF THE 



HELD AT WORCESTER, OCT. 2(1, 1855. 

WITU THE 

OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE SPEECHES 

OF 


Dr. Luther V. Bell, J. T. Stevenson, 
Sa il. H. Walley, Geo. S. Hillard, 
Wm, C. Fowler, Otis P. Lord, 


Letters of Hufus Choate and Robert G. 
Winthrop. 


WHIG PLATFORM AND STATE 
CENTRAL COMMITTEE. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED AT TPIE OFFICE OF THE BOSTON COURIER. 
1855. 






'>S’K^-S2 

isss 


WHIG STATE CONTENTION. 


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The Whigs of Massachusetts met in Convention 
at the ciiy of Worcester, on Tuesday, for the pur¬ 
pose Of nominating candidates for the offices of 
Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of the 
Commonwealth, Treasurer, Auditor, and Attor¬ 
ney-General. The weather Avas quite unpleasant, 
nevertheless there was a very large gathering. 
The Boston and other Eastern delegations, with 
the Brigade Band, arrived about quarter past elev¬ 
en o’clock, and the Convention was called t^ order 
in the City Hall, at twenty minutes of twelve 
o’clock, by Charles Devens, Jr., Esq., of Worces¬ 
ter. On motion of Gen. Oliver of Lawrence, the 
Chairman and Secretary of the Whig State Central 
Committee—Hon. Luther V. Bell of Somer¬ 
ville, and Hon. William Aspinwall of Brook¬ 
line—were deputed the President and Secretary 
pro tern. Dr. Bell on taking the chair, spoke as 
follows :— . 

Gentlemen of the Convention !—Pepresentatives 
of the tried and true Whigs of Massachusetts (pro¬ 
longed cheering) :—I feel that this is no common 
privilege to be allowed to associate my name, even 
for a brief space, with this occasion. In the name 
of the committee of which I have the honor to be 
the head. I thank you for this token of approba¬ 
tion and confidence, both in my own behalf and 
theirs. Under ordinary circumstances this com¬ 
pliment, we know, might be merely an indication 
of ordinary courtesy ; but amid the events which 
have marked our past political year—amid the 
difficulties and embarrassments -which have sur¬ 
rounded our State Central Committee, I feel that 
we have a right to regard this generous reception 
as no equivocal compliment. (Loud applause.) 
I am hap})y to say that the committee have been 
able to act with uninterrupted harmony. I re¬ 
joice, in behalf of my brethren, that “amid the 
faithless they have been faithful found.” (Cheers.) 
They have retained throughout an unshaken al¬ 
legiance to those great conservative principles 
W’hich have ever stamped the Whig party as pre¬ 
eminently the party of the Union and of the Con¬ 
stitution. (Api'lause.) 

Un motion of Col. Thompson of Springfield, that 
gentleman and Messrs. J. D. Green of Cambridge, 
Henry Hobart of Abington, W. S. Gardner of 
Low-ell, W. Mixter of Hardwick, and George 
Marston of Barnstable, were appointed a Commit¬ 
tee on Credentials. 

On motion of Mr. Ho-vve of Brookline, the mem¬ 



bers of the Whig State Central Committee were 
admitted to seats in the Convention and invited to 
participate in its deliberations. 

Messrs. B. K. Hough of Essex, J. M. Wightman 
of Suffolk, Judson Murdock of Middlesex, F. W. 
Lincoln of Norfolk, Isaac L, Hedge of Plymouth, 
Joseph Lapham of Hampshire, Horace Lee of 
Hampden, Daniel Fisher of Dukes, Lean dor Cros¬ 
by of Barnstable, J. M. Tuthill of Worcester, 
C. H. B. Snow of Franklin, W. H. Brow-n of 
Bristol, and John Bird of Berkshire, were appoint¬ 
ed a committee to retire and report a list of per¬ 
manent officers of the Convention. 

Dr. Bell here read the following letters :— 

■Whig Central Committee Boom, ■) 
Boston, 21st Sept., 1855. ) 

Dear Sir,—In'prospect of the approaching W^hig 
Convention, the Central Committee are endeavor¬ 
ing to make the usual preparations to render its 
action effective. As the nomination of any gen¬ 
tleman to high office, who might for any circum¬ 
stances feel it incumbent on him to decline, would 
involve the necessity of a second gathering, and 
render any future nomination weak and unsatis¬ 
factory, it has been the custom hitherto to ascer¬ 
tain in advance the willingness of prominent gen¬ 
tlemen to accept in the event of the voice of the 
delegates calling upon them. As leg’ards your¬ 
self, the Committee are especially de-^irous of re¬ 
ceiving an intimation of y'our willingness or the 
reverse to receive the nomination on tw o acctmnts 
— first, because they feel confident that your nanae 
will be very prominent among those under con¬ 
sideration ; and secondly, because a genthman, 
Mr. Dana, at the recent Fusion Conventic/U, gave 
the impression, as you have noted in the public 
prints, that you would reject the 'Whig nomina¬ 
tion as incompatible wdth your relations to the 
new party. 

As the time for an arrangement is somewhat 
pressing, may we ask the favor of as early a reply 
as convenient. 

Very respectfully, 

L. V. BELT;, Chairman. 

Hon. Julius Rockw'ell. 

Pittsfield, Sept. 25, 1855. 

My Dear Sir,—In reply to your letter of the 
2let instant, I have to say that I stand upon these 
facts: 

I attended a primary meeting in this tow'n on 
the 17th inst., called to appoint delegates to the 
Worcester Convention of the 20th inst. I have 


V 




3 


. been notified by the officers of that Convention, 
that I was nominated there as the candidate of tlie 
Republican party for Governor, and by a reply 
Vv’hich I have sent by this mail, and to which I 
ask leave to refer you, I have accepted that nomi- 
aiation. The reasons of my attending the primary 
meeting, were set forth in some remarks which i 
made there, a brief sketch of which has been 
published. I have written no letters to anybody 
connected with the Conventicu, except in reply to 
a very few letters addressed to me, i-equiring a re- 
l)ly. Those replies contain nothing which I wish 
to conceal fix)in anybody. 

Beiore committing myself to this movement in 
the way which I did, I considei'ed the matter as 
freely as I could, I see that two gentlemen at 
least who were Whig members of the last Con¬ 
gress attended the Convention, and took promi¬ 
nent parts in its proceedings. * 

I cannot place myself in any position which is 
equivocal, or which is capable of misconstruction. 
To accept a nomination from any^other party as 
such, would, in m}--judgment, place me in. such 
position. 

I have attended with care to ail that I have seen 
in the papers. 1 respect the optinion of others. I 
entertain my own with a diffidence, when it dil- 
fcTs from that of esteemed friends, but my judg¬ 
ment must govern my conduct. 

1 have thus replied to the inquiry in your let¬ 
ter, and remain very respectfully, and trulv vour 
friend, • J. ROCKWELL. 

Hon. Luther V. Bell. Chairman, of the Whig ' 

State Central Committee. 

New Bedford, Sept. 29, 1855. 

My Dear Sir,—If my name should be suggested 
by our political friends in connection with the 
nomination of Attorney General, at the Conven¬ 
tion w'hich is to assemble on Tuesday next, will 
j’-ou do me the favor to uniiounce to them that I 
resj)ectfully decline being a candidate for the 
place. s 

From among the many distinguished members 
of the profession, whose attachment to the hon¬ 
ored priucii)les and associations of the Whig party 
continues unabated in the political chaos around 
us, it will be easy for the Convention to make a 
selection acceptable to the people of the Common¬ 
wealth ; for I do not yet believe that it is the de¬ 
sire of the pe'^ple of Massachusetts that this shall 
be made a purely political office, or that the ad- 
ministt’fUion of its functions shall be controlled by 
a complaisant deference to a supposed popular 
opinion, rather than by an unswerving adherence 
to the requirements of the Constitution and laws. 

For myself, however, I am not disposed to enter 
into a contest for an office, the duties of which. I 
have continued to discharge during the past year, 
more from considerations of public duty, than with 
any reference to my private interests or inclina¬ 
tions. I am, very respectfully, 

Your friend and ob’t serv’t, 

• JOHN II. CLIFFORD. 

Dr. L. V. Bell, Chairman. 

Worcester, Oct. 1, 1855. 

To the W hid State Central —Gentle¬ 

men— My relations to the Whigs of Massachusetts 
for the last two years seem to justify, if they do 
not demand, a few words of personal explanation, 
in view of their approaching Convention. 

My present connexion with one of the public 
literary institutions of the state renders it,obvious¬ 


ly, proper that I should decline, as I respectfully 
• do, being regarded as a candidate for any office at 
the corning election. 

But I am unwiilir.g to be suspected, in taking 
this step, of having abandoned the Dohiical plat¬ 
form on which I have stood, or the cause for 
which I have hitherto labored. 

My devotion to those principles which have 
been adopted and acted upon by the great mass 
of the Whigs of Massachusetts has been evinced, 
I trust, by something tnore»than mere professions. 

The more I became acquainted with the practi¬ 
cal results of those principles, the more fully was 
I confirmed in my convictions of 'heir wisdom and 
adaption to the condition of our country. 

The legitimate fruits of a Whig policy and a 
Whig administration have been seen in the history 
of Massachu.setts during the quarter of a century 
in which thei'^ prevailed there. 

And when the wanton and uncalled for viola¬ 
tion of good faith, in the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, had shown the necessity of an united 
action on the part of the free states, to regain tlie 
ground which freedom had thereby lo.st, and re¬ 
sist the further encroachments of the slave power, 
I know not a single Whig in MassacImsetts who 
was not ready and willing to do all that he might 
within the limits of the Constitution, to accom 
plish that end. 

Such, certainh’’, were the language anrl acts of 
our able and fearless Whig Represe.natives in 
Congress. And such were the resolves of the 
Whigs of Massachusetts through their Convention, 
the last year, deliberately adopted and soli uinly 
declared. Such, too, 1 believe, were the feelings 
with which they entered the canvass at the last 
election. .They labored openly, sincerely and hon¬ 
estly, bO maintain the cause of home industry and 
of human freedom and of our common country. 
In that struggle, however, they were stricken 
down b}' blow'S dealt in the dark, from hands that 
had just before, been joined with theirs in the 
grasp of proffered friendship and fidelity. 

Of the results /if that struggle, it may not be¬ 
come me to speak. But this I do say, tiiat il the 
cause of liberty is ever triumphant—it ttie aggres¬ 
sions of the slave power are ever to be chi eked — 
if slavery is to remain what it ought to lie, a slave 
and not a national institution, it can only be ac¬ 
complished upon substantial!} ,the same grounds 
on vi hich the Whigs of Massucdiusetis were cany- 
ing on that struggle when their povver was para¬ 
lyzed by the treacaery that betrayed tiieiu. 

In view of what the Whigs of Ma-saeiiusetts 
have been, and what they liave acconi; iisaed, I 
am proud to have been ol such a party. 

I am proud of its history, I am proud of its 
name, and the associations tliat cluster around it. 

It may lose its distinctive character in tlie cdiauges 
through which Massachusetts is pa-^siug, Imt its 
spirit will animate whatever party it may be —and 
such a party 1 trust tliere will ever be—ihat seeks 
tlie honor and prosperity of our gl rious Comm m- 
wealth, the union of these states, and liie check 
by constitutional means of the growth of an in¬ 
stitution that is fraught with so much evil as titac 
which is now agitating the whole community. 

Thanking, as 1 cordially do, the Wing-. <d Mas¬ 
sachusetts lor the many marks of lavor ilu^' have 
been pleased to bestow upon me, and idieiisliuig, 
as I ever shall, the grateful remembrance of the 
personal kindness of so many of its members, I 
trust the same spirit will animate, and an equal 
w'isdoia guide the deliberations of the coming 


4 


"Whig Convention which have heretofore charac¬ 
terized the meetings of its representatives. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

EMORY WASHBURN. 

The committee on organization reported as fol¬ 
lows ; — 

For President, 

J. THOMAS STEVENSON, of Boston. 

For Vice-Presidents, 

Suffolk County—Albert Fearing and James W. 
Paige, of Boston. 

Essex—Nathaniel Silshee of Salem, and Henry 
W. Kinsman of Newbury port. 

^Middlesex—S. J. Peck of Groton, and James D. 
Green of Cambridge.' 

Worcester—G. T. Rice of Worcester, and Wil¬ 
liam Broad of Barre. 

Hampshire—Edward Dickinson ot Amherst, 
and Parsons West of Hadley. 

Hampden—Homer Foote of Springfield, and 
Otis Holmes of Holyoke. 

Franklin—George T. Davis of Greenfield. 

Berkshire—John M. Thuthell of Hinsdale. 

Norfolk—Col. Thomas Aspinw'all of Brookline, 
and Thomas Motley of Dedham. 

Bristol—S. L. Crocker of Taunton. 

Plynrouth—Benjam.in King of Abington, and 
^Philander Washburn of Middleboro’. 

Barnstable—Daniel Crocker of Barnstable, and 
Oliver C. Smith of Falmouth, 

Dukes—Daniel Fisher. 

Nantucket—Daniel Baker. 

For Secretaries —Farnham Plummer of Boston, 
W. W. Weildon of Charlestown, J. S. C. Hays of 
Lawrence, William Savory of Carver, Samuel B. 
Noyes of Canton, Frederick M. Peck of Worces¬ 
ter, and George W. Atwater of Springfield. 

The report was accepted by a unanimous vote, 
and Gen. Dana of Charlestown and Gen. Oliver 
of Lawrence were appointed a committee to con¬ 
duct the President to the chair. 

SPEECH OP PRESIDENT STEVENSON. 

The Rev. Mr. Bushnell of Worcester having 
offered prayer, Mr. Stevenson addressed the Con¬ 
vention :— 

Gentlemen of the Convention,—I thank you for 
this honor. My very limited experience in the 
duties of the chair must Ije the apology for any 
deficiencies on my part, and I am sure that your 
kir.d indulgence will render the performance of 
those duties comparatively easy. 

We are here in the exercise of a delegated trust. 
Thi^ Convention has been called by the Whig 
State Central Committee, and we have been sent 
up here, by our Whig fellow^-citizens, to nominate 
good, and true, and steadtast and unseduced 
AVhigs, as candidates for the various state offices 
which are to be filled at the approaching election. 
(Applause.) 

The known character, and the political integ¬ 
rity, and the steady firmness of the gentlemen 
who are here, give ample assurance that that trust 


will be faithfully and Judiciously executed. (Re¬ 
newed applause.) 

We have no new principles to avow ; (cheers) 
no new doctrines to promulgate ; (renewed cheer¬ 
ing) no new light to show, (cheers) either as guides 
into new channels or as allurements into the 
wreckers’ dangers. (Prolonged cheering.) 

We are here to nominate a Whig Governor for 
the Whig state of Massachusetts. (Applause.) I 
say the Whig state of Massachusetts, for it has 
been the principles of the Whig party, carried out, 
with very rare and very short-lived exceptions, in 
our state legislation, which has made Massachu¬ 
setts what she is. (Cheers.) If it be proposed to 
us to lay aside those principles, even for a day, or 
to surrender that name, let us ask those who sug- ^ 
gest it to show to us the other state in this Union, 
or the other place on the face of the earth, where 
the government has been more faithfully con¬ 
ducted than here; where justice has been more 
surely administered than here ; where the majesty 
of the law has been more certainly maintained 
than here ; where legislation has done more for the 
promotion of the best interests of all classes than 
here; where more has be<^n done for the moral 
and intellectual education of the people than here ; 
where the large streams of public charities have 
flowed with more beneficent influences than here— 
let them show to us such a state, and then it will 
be early enough to ask us to lay aside the princi¬ 
ples which, in their development, have led to such 
results. (Cheers.) 

No, gentlemen, no. The Whigs of Massachu¬ 
setts intend, in this year of our Lord, 1855, to 
stand upon their own foundations, so deeply laid, 
and broad enough for our whole common coun¬ 
try, and will not, at the bidding of any leaders, 
either of friends or of foes, undertake to entrench . 
themselves in any castle-in-the-air, (great cheer¬ 
ing) no matter how gorgeous the cloud may be, 
(cheers) on which it seems to rest (applause). 

I ought not to detain you longer from the more 
immediate duties of the day (cries of “go on,” and 
cheers). But you w'ill, perhaps, excuse me while 
I allude, very briefly, to the subject of the new 
position of things in Massachusetts. I refer, as 
you will understand, to the attempt which is be¬ 
ing made by politicians of various strifes to estab¬ 
lish a new' party here, for state purposes, upon the 
sole issue of opposition to the extension of negro 
slavery. The very foundation of such a party must 
be a pretence. 

They undertake to say that the only character¬ 
istic ot their party—the only tie w'hich connects its 
heterogenous parts, the only aim it has, the only 
purpose it seeks the accomplishment of, is opposi¬ 
tion to the extension of slavery. They know, as 
well as w'edo, that there is but one judgment in 
Massachusetts on that point, and, therefore, that 
the flag under which they propose to sail, like the 
pirate’s flag at sea, bears no distinguishing mark. 
They know, as well as we do, that there is but 
one line of division which can be drawn in Massa¬ 
chusetts upon that subject. (Applause.) 

On one side of that line stand those, who, sin¬ 
cere as any in their desire that this only blight of 
our country may be restrained and removed, still 
feel, and acknowledge, and mean to be controlled 
by the obligations of the constitution of our coun¬ 
try ; while on the other side of it stand those W'ho 
are prepared to disregard and to break down all 
barriers in their pursuit of this one object. 

The Whigs of Massachusetts, with whom the 
word slavery needs no epithet, because the sub- 


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5 


stantive noun, in its naked deformity, conveys all 
the horrors that the human mind is capable of 
conceiving of—stand, and they mean to stand, on 
the constitutional side of that line—the onlj^ line 
which can be drawn in Massachusetts. Within the 
limits of th« Constitution no efforts of theirs will 
be wanting; beyond its limits no steps will be 
taken. 

Any man, and any set of men, whatever name 
they may give to their party, whether Fusionists, 
or Kepubiicans, or Free Soilers, or Abolitionists, 
W'ho call other men in Massachusetts “pro-slavery 
men,” are libellers and defamers. And I, for one, 
distrust the designs of those who undertake to 
seize upon that which they know to be the com¬ 
mon sentiment, the universal judgment of men in 
Massachusetts, and to appropriate it to themselves 
for party purposes. 

This new part}’’, or rather this old party with an 
alias, (laughter) seems to me to be composed of, 
and to be guided by, the same men who directed 
and controlled, and are responsible for, the most 
objectionable part of the legislation of the last 
winter; and they now repudiate and reject their 
own Governor, on account of the acts on his part 
W'hich alone made the last year’s administration 
decent. 

They have had their Convention, and have made 
their nominations ; and they present to us the re¬ 
markable spectacle of a State Convention to nom¬ 
inate state officers and to make arrangements fora 
state campaign, and no one of our state institu¬ 
tions alluded to or thought of! (Applause.) 

Have we no interests in Massachusetts? Are 
there no public matters, demanding the care and 
the vigilance of good citizens, excepting slavery ? 
Are our own rights nothing? Are all our varied 
relations to one another nothing ? Are not our 
own institutions worth the trouble of a vote ? Is 
not our own Constitution worth the trouble of a 
thought ? (Applause.) 

I do not believe that the reflecting Whigs of this 
state will connect themselves with any party 
which seems to be based upon the hollow doctrine 
that we have no interests at home worthy of a 
government, and that allgwhich a party has to do 
in Massachusetts is to cry out about the laws and 
the constitutions of other states. (Applause.) 

They confine themselves to a single purpose, 
and that a foreign one, and they nominate men to 
offices, in which, if they shoufd be elected, they 
can have no vote anywliere on any subject aftect- 
ing that purpose; nor could they, by virtue of 
their offices, exert any influence on that subject, 
without unwarrantably perverting those state offi¬ 
ces from their legitimate objects. 

' What has the Governor of Massachusetts to do 
in his official capacity with this, their only doc¬ 
trine ? What has the Legislature of Massachu¬ 
setts to do with the laws and the institutions of 
other states ? 

When the governmentbf Massachusetts devotes 
itself, in any direction, to the institutions of other 
states, disi'egarding our own, she will have wan¬ 
dered from her proper sphere, and will be counted 
'with the “lost pleiad” ; lost to all useful purpo¬ 
ses, giving no more light in a constellation, in 
which she was once a guiding star. (Cheers.) 

When the state government undertakes, in any 
form or for any reason, to abrogate or to nullity 
the action of the general government, it not only 
commits an act of revolution, but it invades the 
individual and personal rights of each ot her ow'u 
citizens. 


Those who undertake to establish parties on 
such foundations, to constitute state governments 
for sucn purposes, need to be taught, that each 
citizen of Massachusetts owes allegiance to, and is 
entitled to the protection of the government of 
the United States, not because he is a citizen of 
Massachusetts, but because he is one of the peo¬ 
ple of the United States. (Applause.) 

The states did not establish the government nor 
ordain the Constitution of the United States. The 
people, in the exercise of their original powers, 
ordained the one and established the other; and 
each citizen’s relations to the general government 
are as immediate and as direct, as his relations to 
the state government are, and those relations to 
the government at Washington are not to be al¬ 
tered, or controlled, or interfered with, by the 
state government, any more than his relations to 
the government of the state are to be altered, or 
controlled, or interfered with, by the city govern¬ 
ment. Any such interference is an invasion of 
the individual’s personal private rights. 

When you wish to approach the government of 
the United States, you are not to do so through 
the Council Chamber in Boston, any more than, 
■when you wish to approach the government of the 
state, you are to do so through the Mayor’s office 
in School street. Your relations are direct aiud 
immediate with one government as with the other. 

But, say some falteidng gentlemen, the Whig 
party was defeated last year, and it is useless to 
strive on. 

Defeat is not always ruin. (Applause.1 What 
man ever succeeded in anything who allowed his 
first reverse to crush his spirits, or to paralyze his 
arm? M'hat association of men, w’hat political 
party, could ever succeed, by whom reverse was 
looked upon as destruction. (Cheers.) 

Some have suggested that the Whig party is 
dead. There is fire'in its ashes, there is life in its 
shade ; and, as its spirit pervades the Common¬ 
wealth, its ghost will turn out to be a very sub¬ 
stantial person. 

We do not forget that some gentlemen, M-ith 
whom we have been associated, and whom the 
Whig party has delighted to honor, have seen fit 
to take part in this fusion movement, as it is called. 
They will soon find themselves unable to tread the 
crooked paths into which their new associates will 
carry them. And they wdll soon be back again at 
the gats of the old homestead ; and we will re¬ 
ceive them kindly, forgiving the wanderings of an 
hour for their service of years. (Applause.) 

Old rats, they say, desert a sinking ship. True; 
but old rats, like all other created things, are liable 
to be mistaken, and I for one am not ready to follow 
them over the rail, or through the scupper holes, be¬ 
cause I see no evidence, excepting their desertion, 
that the ship is sinking; and in the next place, it 
the good old ship is to go down, I had rattier go 
down with her, (cheers,) with her colors flying, 
and with the flag of the Union at her mast-head, 
(cheers,) than to desert her and to struggle for 
life, on a single plank, in company with the muti¬ 
neers who have scuttled her. (Prolonged cheers.) 

We have a plain duty to perform. Those who 
sent us here expect at our hands the nomination 
of a ticket which they may vote for with pride 
and with satisfaction. (Cheers.) 

Our cause is just. Let our union be perfect, 
and then, if we succeed, it will be a victory worthy 
of a triumph ; or, if we fail, it will be defeat with¬ 
out dislionor. (Great applause.) 

Lotus inscribe upon our banner:—God save th 


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6 


Commonwealth of Ma^isachusetts ; and upon the 
other side of it, in letters equally as large, God 
save the United States of America. 

AVhen Mr. Stevenson took his seat he was 
cheered three times three by the Convention. 

Mr. Plummer of Boston here read the following 
letters, which had been received from lion. Bufus 

Choate, Hon. Robert C. M’inthrop and others 

• 

Boston, 1st Oct., 1855. 

Messrs. Peter Butler, Jr., and Bradley N. CumingSy 
Secretaries, ^c., ^e .:— 

Gentlemen—I discover that my engagements 
will not allow me to attend the Convention to be 
holden at Worcester to-morrow, and I hope that 
it is not too late to fill the vacancy. 

I assure the Whigs of Boston that I should 
have regarded it as a duty and a privilege, if it 
had been practicable, to serve as one of their del¬ 
egates. The business which the Convention meet 
to do gives it extraordinary attraction as well as 
importance. 

SVhether we are dead, as reported in the news¬ 
papers, or, if not, whether we shall,fall upon our 
own swords and die even so, will be a debate pos¬ 
sessing the interest of novelty at least. JPor one, 

I deny the death, and object to the suicide, and 
should be glad to witness the indignation and 
laughter with which such a question will be taken. 

If theie shall be in that assembly any' man, 
who, still a MHiig, or having been such, now' pro¬ 
poses to dissolve the party, let him be fully Imard 
and courteously answered upon his reasons. Let 
him declare wdiat party we shall join. Neutrality 
in any' sharp civil dissension is cowardly, immoral 
and disreputable. To what party then does he 
recommend us ? I take it for granted it will not 
be to the Democratic ; I take it for granted, also, 
not the American. To what other, then ? To 
that of fusion certainly—to the Republican, so 
called, I suppose, because it is organized upon a 
doctrine, and aims at ends, and appeals to feel¬ 
ings, on which one half of the republic, by a geo¬ 
graphical line, is irreconcilably opposed to the 
other. Even to that party. 

Let him be heard on his reasons for deserting 
our connection and joining such an one. To me, 
the answer to them all, to all such as I have heard 
or can imagine, seems ready and decisive. 

Suppressing entirely all that natural indigna¬ 
tion and sense of wounded pride and grief which 
might be permitted in view ot such a proposition 
to Whigs who remember their history—the names 
of the good and wise men of the living and dead, 
that have illustrated their connection, and served 
their country through it—who remember their 
grand and large creed of Union—the Constitu¬ 
tion—peace with honor—nationality—the devel¬ 
opment and culture of all sources uf material 
growth—the education of the people—the indus¬ 
try ot the people,—suppressing che emotions 
winch Whigs, remembering this creed and the 
fruits it has borne, and may yet bear, might well 
feel towards the tempter and the temptation, the 
answer to all the arguments for going into fusion 
is at hand. It is useless totally for all the objects 
of the fusionist, assuming them to be honest and 
constitutional,—useless and prejudicial to tlmse 
objects: and it is fraught moreover with great 
evil. What are the objects of the fusionist ? To 
restore the violated compromise, or if he cannot 
orfect that, to secure to the inhabitant, bona fide 
such, of the ne^y territory, the unforced choice of 


the domestic institutions which he prefers, a 
choice certain in the circumstances of tliat coun¬ 
try now or soon to close it against slavery forever. 
These, unless he courts a general disturbance 
and the revelry of civil “battle fields,'’ are his ob¬ 
jects ; and when he shall prove that fusion will 
send to Congress men who will labor with more 
zeal and more effect to these ends than such 
MHiigs as Mr. Walley is or as Mr. Rockwell was^ 
with a truer devotion to liberty—more obedient 
to the general sentiment and the specific ex¬ 
actions of the free states—with a better chance 
to touch the reason and heart, and win the 
co-operation of good men in all sections,-— 
when he proves this, you may believe him. We 
know that the Whig representatives of Massachu¬ 
setts in Congress do and must coAapletely express 
the anti-slavery sentiment of Massachusetts, so 
far as they may be expressed under the Constitu¬ 
tion. More than this we do not seek to express 
while there is yet a Constitution. Fusion is need¬ 
less for the honest objects of the fusionist. 

But the evils of disbanding such a party as ours 

and substituting such a party as that-1 See what 

it fails to do. Here is a new anel great political 
party, which is to govern, if it can, the state of 
Massachusetts, and to govern, if it can, the Amer¬ 
ican Union. And what are its politics e It has 
none. Who knows them ? Even on the topic of 
slavery, nobody knows, that I am aware of, what 
in certain it seeks to do, or how much or how lit¬ 
tle will content it. Loud, in general denuncia¬ 
tion, it is silent or evasive on particular details. 

But outside of the topic of slavery, what are its 
politics? Wnat, in the most general outline, is its 
creed of national or state policy ? How does it 
interpret the Constitution ? What is its theory of 
state rights ? What is its foreign policy ? By 
what measures ; by what school of politicians ; by 
what laws on w'hat subjects ; by what diplomacy ; 
how, generally, does it propose to accomplish that 
good, and prevent that evil, and pi'ovide for those 
wants for which states are formed and govern¬ 
ment established? Does it know’? Does it tell? 
Are its representatives to go to Congress or the 
Legislature to speak and^’Ote on slavery only ? If 
not, on what else, and on which side of it? 

A party, a great political party, without politics, 
is a novelty indeed. Before the people of this 
country or state enable it to rule them, they will 
desire, I fancy, a little more inform.ation on these 
subjects. We all, or almost all, of the free states, 
who recognize the Constitution, think on slavery 
substantially alike. Before we make men Presi¬ 
dents and Governors, and Senators and Judges, 
and Diplomatists, we demand to see ivhai else be¬ 
sides cheap, easy, unavoidable conformitj' to the 
sectional faith on that one topic, they can show 
for themselves. 

We elect them not to deliver written lectures 
to assenting audiences of ladies and gentlemen ; 
to kindle the inflammable, and exasperate the an¬ 
gry; but to perform the duties of practical states¬ 
manship, in the most complicated and delicate po¬ 
litical sv>tem, and the hardest to administer, in 
the world. Let us, at least, then, know their pol- 
tics. 

Kept totally in the dark about those, we do 
know that this party of fusion is, in the truest of 
all senses, and the w'orst of all senses, a geographi¬ 
cal party. What argument against it can we add 
to this? Such a party, like war, is to be made 
w'hen it is necessary. If it is not necessary, it ia 
like war too, a tremendous and uncompensated 


7 


evil. When it shall have become necessary the 
eternal separation will have begun. That 
time, that end, is not yet. Lot us not has¬ 
ten, and not anticipate it, by so rash an innova¬ 
tion as this. 

Parties in this country heretofore have helped, 
not delayed the slow and difficult growth of a 
consuininated nationality. Our discussions have 
been sharp; the contests for honor and power, 
keen; the disputes about principles and measures, 
hot and prolonged. But it was in our country’s 
majestic presence that wo contended. It was from 
her Irand that we solicited the prize. Whoever 
lost or won we loved her better. Our allies were 
ever 5 '\vhere. There were no Alleghanies nor Mis¬ 
sissippi Rivers in our politics. 

Such was the felicity of our condition, that the 
very dissentions which rent small republics in 
twain, welded and compacted the vast fabric of 
our own. Does he Avho Avould substitute for this 
form of conducting our civil differences a geogra¬ 
phical party, completely understand his own work ? 
Does he consider how vast an educational instru¬ 
mentality the party life and influence compose ? 
Does he forget how the public opinion of a peo¬ 
ple is created, and that when created it deter¬ 
mines their history ? All party organization 
tends towards faction. This is its evil. But it 
is^ inseparable from free government. To choose 
his political connection aright is the most delicate 
and difficult duty of the citizen. We have made 
our choice and we abide by it. We join our¬ 
selves to no party that does not carry the flag 
and keep step to the music of the Union. 

I am, gentlemen. 

Your fellow-citizen, 

RUFUS CHOATjS. 

Boston, 27th Sept. 1855. 

Gentlemen—On my return home last night I 
received your notification that I had been chosen 
a delegate to the Whig State Convention. 

I am grateful to the Whigs of Boston for such 
a mark of their continued confidence ; but it will 
not be in my power to go to Worcester on Tues¬ 
day next, and I must therefore request that my 
place may be seasonably filled. 

I am unwilling to make this communication, 
however, without saying, distinctly, that I have 
seen nothing in the condition of our public affairs 
to call for the organization of a mere sectional 
party upon a single anti-slavery issue. 

On the contrary, I have a deep conviction that 
such a movement will be attended with danger to 
the republic, and with ultimate discomfiture to 
the best interests of freedom. 

1 opposed such a proceeding in 1847, and I can 
take no part in its renewal under the same auspices 
now. I am, gentlemen, 

Respectfully yours, 

ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 

P. Butlek, Jr., B. N. Cummings, Esqs., Sec’ys. 

Boston, 26th September, 1855. 

Gentlemen,—I am duly sensible to the honor of 
being appointed a delegate to the Whig State Con¬ 
vention, but shall not be able to attend it. 

It may, however, be fit that I should take this 
occasion to state that I am opposed to any fusion 
which would render the Whig party the mere tool 
of those who'^c first precept, under pretence of 
some new-discovered higher obligation, is to vio¬ 
late good faith. Nor can we help suspecting those, 
who, retaining other incumbents in office, for no 


avowed reason but because they are incumbents, 
exclude the Attorney-General, a man of more 
ability than all the other candidates put together, 
and who has filled his place and that of Governor 
in a manner equalled by very few of his predeces¬ 
sors in either office, and surpassed by none. 

He does not want the office, but the public want 
him, and I doubt whether the people of Massa¬ 
chusetts are prepared, at the dictation of any par¬ 
ty, to cast a slur on him. 

Respectfully, 

Your ob’t servant, 

F. C. GRAY. 

Boston, Sept. 29, 1855. 

Gentlemen.—I regret, very much, that it will 
not be in my power to attend the Convention to 
be held at Worcester on the 2d proximo. I am 
grateful for the honor conferred upon me by the 
meeting, which you represent, in appointing me a 
delegate, and am heart and hand in the good cause 
for which that meeting was organized. 

My continued hope that I should be able to ac¬ 
cept the appointment, be my apology for delaying 
this note to so late an hour. 

I am, with great regard, ever your obedient ser¬ 
vant, JOHN P. BIGELOW. 

Boston, Sept. 29, 1855. 

Gentlemen,—Having been absent from the city 
for the last few days, I only received your note of 
the 21th, last evening. It wdll nut be in my pow¬ 
er to attend the Wliig Convention at Worcester 
on Tuesday ; but I hope they will make such a 
demonstration as will convince the world that the 
Whig party of Massacliusetts is not extinct. 

With much respect, vour very obliged servant, 

N. APPLETON. 

< — 

Messrs. William Aspinwall of Norfolk, N. A. 
Thompson of Suffolk, J. H. Carlton of Essex, J. 
F. Barrett of Middlesex, S. B. I. Goddard of Wor¬ 
cester, Joseph Lothrop of Hampshire, S. A. 
Shackford of Hampden, Theodore Leonard of 
Franklin, Mathias Ellis of Plymouth, John Jen¬ 
kins of Barnstable, John Morrissey of Nantucket, 
and Robert Sherman of Bristol, were appointed to 
prepare a p’atform of principles. , 

Mr. 'I'lioMrsoN of Springfield, from the Commit¬ 
tee on Credentials, reported that there were many 
delegates in attendance who forgot to bring their 
certificates, but that 718 had been returned,show¬ 
ing that one hundred and twenty-four cities and 
towms were represented in the Convention. 

On motion of Gen. Oliver of Lawrence, it was. 
agreed to take an informal ballot for a candidate 
for Governor, and a committee was appointed to 
receive the votes. In due time, Gen. Oliver re¬ 
ported the following as the result:— 

Samuel H. Walley of Roxbury..454 

Julius Rockwell of Rittslield.. 18 

Robert C. Winthrop ot Boston... 15 

William Appleton of Boston.. 18 

George Ashmun of Springlield. 9 

Levi Lincoln of Worcester... 7 

Otis I*. Lord ot Salem.. 4 

Henry J. Gardner of Boston.... 4 

Francis B. Crowninshield of Boston.... S 

George B. Upton of Boston.. 8 

Emory Washburn of Worcester.... 2 

John il. Clifford ot New Bedford... 2 














8 


J. Thomas Stevenscm of Boston. 2 

Luther V. Bell of Somerville. 2 

Ensign H. Kellogg of Pittsfield. 1 

PMward Dickinson ol Amherst.. .... 1 

Edward Everett of Boston. 1 


Mr. Hough of Gloucester said the sense of the 
Convention was clear, and he felt persuaded that 
gentlemen would agree with him that no formal 
ballot was necessary. He therefore moved that 
Samuel H. Wallet be declared the nominee of 
the Whig Convention. This was agreed to by a 
unanimous vote, and Mr. Wallet, who was pres¬ 
ent, was called out. Mr. Stevenson introduced 
him thus :— 

Gentlemen,—I have the honor to introduce to 
you the next Governor of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts. (Great applause.) 

Mr. Wallet responded as follows :— 

SPEECH OP HON. SAMUEL. H. WALLET. 

Fellow Whigs!—(Immense applause)—If I con¬ 
sulted my own feelings—if I took counsel of my 
own distrust of myself- -if I gave heed to the sug¬ 
gestions which I have received all around me—if 
I even consulted the feelings of my own best fam¬ 
ily friends, I should respectfully decline the nom¬ 
ination -which you have done me the exceeding 
honor to give me at this time. But, gentlemen, I 
feel that upon your shoulders rests the ark of po¬ 
litical freedom in the Commonwealth of Massa¬ 
chusetts. (Loud cheers.) You are the bearers of 
that ark, and you have been sent liere by the citi¬ 
zens of this Commonwealth, representing those 
principles which I deem essential and vital to the 
well-being of this Commonwealth,and select some 
one as the exponent of those views, to stand be¬ 
fore the people and be voted for at the coming 
election ; and, gentlemen, if it is your wish that I 
should do your bidding in this manner, as thus 
indicated, I have nothing to do but to bow in ac¬ 
quiescence. (Great cheering.) 

Gentlemen—I have always been a Whig, I am 
a Whig, and I will die, if I die possessed of my 
reason, adhering to those principles which have 
been the Whig doctrines of this Commonwealth 
ever since that jjarty had an existence. (Loud 
cheers.) Why, gentlemen, talk of the death of 
the Whig party ! (Laughter.) Talk of giving 
up Whig principles ! What has made Massachu¬ 
setts what she is ? What has crowned her with a 
glory and lustre that make her now conspicuous 
throughout all the States of this blessed Union ? 
Why, Mr. President and fellow Whigs, if the prin¬ 
ciples of the Whig party are to be given up, are 
to be surrendered, let them be surrendered in every 
State of the Union before they are surrendered in 
Massachusetts ! (applause) and when their death- 
knell is heard, let it be after every State in the 
Union shall have forsaken those principles; and 
even then there are no principles upon which that 
State alone can stand with so much confidence and 
security, for permanence and future prosperity, as 
those principles which have made her what she 
now is! (Loud cheers.) 

As I was coming here this morning, riding 
along, my eyes rested with pleasure and delight 
upon those mellow tints of autumn, upon your 
ripened foliage ; and I thought of the Whig party 
a^ I looked upon that foliage; not in its spring of 
inexperience, not in its summer of flowers, not 
with those who have basked in its sunshine, and 
are disposed to leave it before the autumnal equi¬ 


nox, not in its icy winter, and dying under the 
cold chill of frost; but of it in its autumn, bearing 
its ripened fru'ts, showing the fulfillment in its 
present existence, and in the institutions of Mas¬ 
sachusetts, of what had been promised and pro¬ 
jected concerning it during its previous existence ; 
and fulfilling now, at this moment, all the pledges 
that its past and present friends have given con¬ 
cerning it. (Cheers.) 

Mr. President, I am not one of those who re¬ 
gard it as a sacrifice to serve the Whig party. I 
am not one of those who are afraid to take part 
and act wdth the Whig party. (Renewed cheers.) 
I am ready —no, I will not say that now—I should 
have been ready, sir, to have gone out into tnis 
campaign and labored with all my heart and all 
my zeal to have secured the election of your 
standard-bearer, and it -w'ould have given me un¬ 
speakable pleasure to have had it in my power to 
have voted for some other gentleman, and espe¬ 
cially would it have given me pleasure to vote 
for Julius Rockwell. He has been my intimate 
friend for 25 years; I have known him well and 
loved him dearly, and I have regarded him as a 
tried, faithful and consistent Whig; and up to the 
time when he forbade the possibility of my voting 
for him as Governor, it would have given me the 
greatest pleasure to have labored and toiled tor his 
election. I regret extremely that he has precluded 
me from the possibility of doing so, and I regret 
it both for his sake and for the sake of the people 
of this Commonwealth. I am sure that no man 
could have served the people of this stite better 
or -w’ith more ability than he could have done; 
and to those whom I see before and around me I 
cannot but say that you have made a mistake in 
your selection, and I wish your selection had 
fallen on some other individual; but as you have, 
in the exercise of your right, chosen to place me 
in the position of your nominee, I shall accept the 
nomination. (Loud cheers ) 

Mr. President, I would go on and speak upon 
the questions of the day, but after the opening 
speech of this morning, anything good that I 
should say would be a repetition, and I will not 
take up your time -wdth anything that is not good. 
(Loud applause.) 

At the close of this address, a committee, of 
which Otis Kimball, Esq., of Boston, was Chair¬ 
man, was appointed to receive, sort and count the 
votes for Lieutenant-Governor, but it being din¬ 
ner time, the Convention adjourned to meet again 
at 3 o’clock. 

AFTEKNOON SESSION. 

The President called the Convention to order at 
3 o’cL)ck. There was some discussion as to the 
position of Mr. Davenport between Messrs. Mars- 
ton of Barnstable and Kinsman ot Newburyport. 
Mr. Hough of Gloucester intimated that it was not 
in order on the part of Mr. Marston, at this stage 
of the proceeedings, to enter into a discussion of 
the mruits of candidates. Col. Boyd of Roxbury 
gave \Ir. Kinsman a similar hint, and the debate 
was ruled out of order. 

Mr. Aspinwall, from the Committee on Resolu¬ 
tions, submitted the following— 

THE PLATFORM OP PRINCIPLE,®. 

Resolved, That at no period in the history of the 
Whig Party has it been so important as now, that 
t.he Whigs of Massachusetts, the untiring advo- 







9 


cat^ of Liberty, of the Constitution, and of the 
maintain their organization, and 
hold themselves aloof from all entangling alliances 
with other parties, under whatever name or under 
whatever pretence. 

Besolved,’ That the Whig party of Massachu- 

Constitution, 

AND HAS NO NEW DOCTRINES TO DE¬ 
CLARE, AND NO STEPb TO RETRACE; that 
It still lives to uphold the standard so long defen¬ 
ded by a long line of illustrious and patriotic 
statesmen, whose glory has been as national as 
were the principles of which they were the repre¬ 
sentatives and exponents. 

^ Resolved, lhat the ensuing election in our 
Commonwealth is pre-eminently a matter of state 
interest, and has no immediate connection with 
national affairs, inasmuch as no officers of the 
general government are to be chosen, and the 
reckless spirit of legislation shown by the last 
General Court, and their wasteful expenditure of 
the resources of the state, make it the imperative 
duty of every tax-payer and citizen to give Ins 
hand to a thorough state reform, and to restore 
our Commoiiwealth to that high standard of leg¬ 
islative wisdom and purity Avhich it always main¬ 
tained under Whig rule. 

Resolved, That the statute known as the “Per¬ 
sonal Liberty law,” passed by the last Legislature, 
in such an extraordinary manner, by fanatical and 
reckless majorities, without the executive assent, 
and in defiance of the highest judicial authority— 
is an enactment disgraceful to a body of men 
sworn to support the Constitution, and should be 
erased from the statute book before collision with 
the federal authorities and bloodshed shall follow 
any attempt to carry its provisions into effect. 
(Great applause.) 

Resolvedj, That the “Maine Liquor Law,” so 
called, was passed in the hope, by the friends of 
temperance, that it would suppress the deadly vice 
of drunkenness—that in this hope they have been 
bitterly disappointed, and after fully trying that 
measure, they have found that it increases the 
evils it w'as meant to obviate, lessens the attach¬ 
ment which all good citizens should have to law 
as a rule of conduct, and, in its operation, is harsh, 
vindictive and opposed to the spirit of the Consti¬ 
tution ; therefore, we call upon all good citizens 
and friends of temperance to rescue this great 
cause from the machinations of self-seeking dem¬ 
agogues, and to unite for the enactment of a law 
upon this important subject which shall at the 
same time promote temperance, respect the natural 
and constitutional rights of the citizens, and which 
public sentiment shall co-operate in supporting. 
(Applause.) 

^ Resolved, That the success in a national election 
of a Northern party, based upon the single issue 
of opposition to slavery, must put the existence of 
the Union in peril, and the defeat of such a party 
must paralyze the anti-slavery sentiment of the 
North, and that if a union of parties snail ever be¬ 
come necessary, it will be a union of national pat¬ 
riots in all parts of the land to rescue the great in¬ 
terests of the country from, the assaults of section¬ 
al fanatics. 


SPEECH OP HON. GEORGE S. HIIiliARD. 

Mr. HiLL.iRD of Boston, in answ'er to ^ call, ad¬ 
dressed the Convention as follows :— 

Mr. President and Gentlemen,—It is some years 
since I have taken any active part in the politics 
of this Commonwealth; and if the Whig party 
were now in the condition in which it was for so 


many years, the natural ruling power of the 
state,—if we were met here merely to transmit the 
sceptre in lineal succession from political father to 
political son, I should not be here; but at the 
present time, the Whig party has a right, in my 
opinion, to demand the presence of every Whig, 
at whatever sacrifice. Amid defections on the 
right hand and on the left, I feel it to be—as Mr. 
Choate has said—not merely a privilege, but a 
duty to be here ; and, therefore, I am here. (A.p- 
plause.) I feel, Mr. President, that 1 may ad- 
dre.‘-s the Whig party, the Whig cause, in the 
words of the poet:— 

Did I but purpose to embark with thee 

On the smooth surface of a summer sea? 

And shall I quit the bark and seek the shore 

When the winds whistle and the tempests roar? 

No, I w'ill not quit the ship. (Applause.) The 
tempests do roar, there is the stormy blast of fa¬ 
naticism striking on her w'eather quarter, on her 
lee-bow are the rocks of Democracy, and I will 
not quit the ship. Be my station in the cabin or 
the forecastle, at the helm or by the windlass, 
there I will stand; and if the Whig ship is to go 
down, I will help to build a raft of her timbers; 
and, if there be a fragment of her glorious old flag 
left, I will nail it to an oar-blade, and hold it aiofc 
as long as I have strength to grasp the handle ! 
(Enthusiastic applause.) 

Mr. President, w^e meet here with somew’hat di¬ 
minished numbers, but with no impaired courage. 
I am content that our numbers are diminished, 
for, in my opinion, our losses are our gains. 
(Applause.) We have lost the treacherous friends 
that gave us their countenance, but never their 
hearts—who held out to us one hand in greeting, 
and had a knife concealed in the other to stab us. 
(Cheers.) We have lost the weak brethren whose 
weakness w'as a perpetual misery to the party. 
(Laughter and Cheers.) We have lost the pur¬ 
blind politicians who would fain govern a great 
political party by rules and principles hardly big 
enough to govern a pin lottery, (loud laughter 
and cheers,) and whose political horizon was no 
larger than the circle traced by a tanner’s horse. 
(Renewed applause) We have lost the disingen¬ 
uous tricksters who are ever attempting to rule 
the honest men of Massachusetts by devices like 
that by which the Irishman drove his pig to Kil- 
larney—by making him believe he was going to 
Cork. (Laughter and cheers). All these we are 
rid of, and well rid. We have a party sufficiently 
strong in numbers, united in purpose, and strong 
in principle; and I, for one, had rather fall wdth 
one principle than stand between two. (Enthusi¬ 
astic cheers). _ ^ 

Such, sir, being the conditi^^ ^ »''hig par¬ 

ty of Massachusetts, the qu^^i -h' is, “What are 
we to do ? Now, I hold it to be a duty in politics, 
as in all other things, to discharge the nearest du¬ 
ty, and meet the nearest emergency. Mr. Fox 
once said that the more he thought about the mat¬ 
ter the more he was convinced that action, and 
not principle, was the proper object of govern¬ 
ment. The question is, what action shall we 
take ? We are told that it is our duty to give up 
our old organization—to desert our old leaders— 
to throw overboard our old principles, and join a 
certain rag-bag party, made up of threads and 
patches of every political organization set down in 
the dictionary of weathercocks, (laughter,) and 
which has called itself the Republican party—a 
name to which it has about as good a title as the 
Rev. Mr. Williams has to the honors and digni¬ 
ties of Louis XVII. (Renewed laughter.) 


10 


Mr. President, my first call to this answer is, 
that such a party is simply an impossibility ; and 
it is miver a wise thing for any political party to 
attempt to ( o that thing which it is obviously im¬ 
possible for them to accomplish. The notion that 
the whole sixteen free states are to abandon all 
general issues and all particular issues, and erect 
themse’ves into a party upon the single basis of 
opposition to slavery, is simply a piece of political 
Quixotism, and it is utterly, hopelessly impossi¬ 
ble ; and therefore, that is sufficient answer to the 
proposition. 

In the next place I contend that if it were pos¬ 
sible it would not be desirable ; but I will come to 
that in a moment. Now, what will be the result 
of our attempting to form this Fusion party, tak¬ 
ing it for granted that the attempt wall not be suc¬ 
cessful? Of course the result wall be to strength¬ 
en the Democratic party. And what is the rela¬ 
tion of the Democratic party—the xohole Demo¬ 
cratic party—to slavery? Upon that question I 
will quote to you the remark ‘of Mr. Buchanan, 
made in 1843. He says:—“All Christendom is 
leagued against the South upon the question of 
domestic slavery. They have no other allies to 
sustain their Constitutional rights except the 
Democracy of the North.” Now, the Democratic 
party has got hold of the idea of nationality,— 
whether they have a better right to it than their 
neighbors it matters not,—they have got hold of 
that idea, and one great cause of the defeat of the 
Whig party at the last Presidential election was 
the suspicion—I think an unfounded one—that 
they were in some degree tinctured with sectional 
abolitionism ; and you may depend upon it that, 
in the long run, the party which rests upon the 
national heart of the people will prevail, and 
when the great heart of the people uprises, as it 
will at the next Presidential election, this Fusion 
party will be broken into fragments too small to 
be picked up and reconstructed anew. 

Now', then, it is very obvious that any party 
which undertakes to govern this country, and by 
a national party, must agree to differ in some re¬ 
spects upon this tremendous question of slavery : 
because there is this inexorable fact before us, tk«t 
we have fifteen slave states at the South, and six¬ 
teen free states of the North, out of which we 
have to make a common country; and as the 
''‘‘cratic party has the national majority in the 
! . end and aim of all these attempts to 

m . j'i it -?rty have been, and ever will be, 

. ruv'ii th party and strengthen the 

1' c!!'''.rat:■ pH t, Uv. '.c^ording to Mr.Bu- 
c ii’a c a u ‘ - jn in'e i “natural ally of 

tvrj; Sot-tii,’ An if you ^ ■ t n ,v jartber con- 
iivi ■‘■ 01 ^ will ^ It ir. That :a a act 

of agj, ->'■ ■ houhu hi.? Ne¬ 

braska bin, ■ , -s -ii k-jr? 5^3 ihurNa a ai 
foolish as wickeu; nut. oerc OiC V.r-i t-.., 

which both these things ■> Lt said, 

That measure was concocted b v j.- "'Nrv H u, t 
ocrat, and sustained by Northern De n;? ,- ih, j-u.- 
never would have passed but for the couul hh h ,- 
of a Democratic administration, with a Demoerui^ 
President at its head. It is true that the South 
went into it—and, in my ow'n opinion, a magnan¬ 
imous and wise policy would have dictated a dif¬ 
ferent course—but it is also true, that that egg 
w’as laid and hatched by Northern Democracy, 
in the first place. 

Another thing. You know that the Whig par¬ 
ty, as a national party, has been, in the main, in 
a minority; but a man looks a very little way into 


the action of political parties who does not see the 
eminent services the Whig party, as a minority, 
has rendered the common country upon national 
questions. The moral weight of a national party 
which has alw'ays offered a constitutional oppo¬ 
sition to slavery—I mean the Whig party of the 
North—the moral weight, I say, which that par¬ 
ty has wielded, has bei n great; and do you sup¬ 
pose that the administration would ever have 
ventured to come before Congress and before the 
people with this Nebraska measure, if Mr. Web¬ 
ster and Mr. Clay had been alive and in their 
seats ? No ! (Cheers.) And thus these attempts 
to form third parties—Fusion parties—American 
parties—have had the invariable effect to weaken 
the Wh’g party of the North, wherein the most 
effectual constitutional opposition to slavery has 
always rested, and to strengthen the Democratic 
party, which is the “natural ally” of the slave 
party of the South. ‘ 

Another objection to this fusion party is, that it 
must of necessity be a sectional party,—a geo¬ 
graphical party ; and just in so far as it becomes a 
large party ; just in so far as the ends and purpo¬ 
ses of the men who organize it are crov ned w’ith 
success, does it become a dangerous party. Now 
it is true, I think, that the slave pow’er of the 
South have shown an aggressive spirit, and I have 
nothing at all to say on that point but to regret it, 
to condemn it. I have no apologies to offer for 
the slave power, fori think that it has shown an 
aggressive spirit, an unw'isely aggressive spirit ? 
but what are the reasons for this, and what are 
the reasons why these aggressions are so often 
crowned with success. In the first place, the rea¬ 
son is, that the natural increase of the Norih is so 
much greater than that of the South, that it stim¬ 
ulates tHe latter to unnatural efforts to keep the 
balance of power as it now is. At the formation 
of the constitution the numbers of the two sec¬ 
tions were about the same; each had about nine¬ 
teen hundred thousand. 

Now there are about nine millions in the South, 
and thirteen millions in the North. The annual 
rate of increase in the free states is three hundred 
and fifty thousand beyond that of the slave states. 
There is a Scotch proverb which stiys, “Time and 
I are good against any two.” Now I say time 
and freedom are good against slavery any day. 

Another reason why the South makes these ag¬ 
gressions, is because the division in politics in the 
North have tended constantly to weaken the Whig 
party and to strengthen the Democratic party, 
their “natural allies;” and especially to weaken 
the moral and intellectual force of the great mi¬ 
nority, the Whig party of the North. This has 
emboldened them to measures they would not 
otherwise have taken. , i 

A ^bird reason is, the perpetual exasperation 
; n;l ulcc; ‘ion occasioned by the anti-slavery 
Tiii a h: North, nine-tenths of which is 
urHbu.g moiT! ’’han vituperation of the 

..J->< ■ -'iDider : ' and while we are all of 

5j. ■'■oSi.J ro lia'. do say that there is no 

uc-r mistake tl , it in which New England 
s.T'or.v^i VO i'oiid os' i a ^ing — the denunciation of 

Slave-Holders .~s cH xnd no good can by any 
possibility curae 0 ‘ 

Now, on that po.::t, I wish to ask your attention 
to one or two pieces of evidence. In the Times 
newspaper of New York, a paper of great circula¬ 
tion and much ability, I find the following para¬ 
graph :— 

“We can hardly open a Southern paper in 


11 


•u’hich we do not, find some grave proposition for 
dissolving the Union, and crushing the North, 
either by non-intercourse, by i)utting a tax on 
Northern productions, or by putting any man 
into Coventry who shall have dealings with the 
free states. Such vaporings have become so com¬ 
mon that, to those who are accustomed to them, 
they have long ceased even to excite mirth, mucit 
less any serious apprehension of difficulty. 

There is the fact as testified by the “ Times,” 
that nearly every Southern newspaper teems with 
expressions of hostility to the North. Now, Mr. 
President and gentlemen, I do not happen to think 
that a comfortable thing by any means. I do not 
think it a matter to excite mirth, and if any body 
in the free states regards it in that light, I con¬ 
gratulate him on his having such abundant mate¬ 
rials for laughter before him. 

There is one side of the question, and now I 
have cut another scrap of evidence on the I'ibrth- 
ern side. Mr. Senator Wade, of Ohio, made a 
speech somewhere down in Maine, a few weeks 
ago, in the course of which he uttered these re¬ 
markable words :— 

“There is no union between us and the South. 
The pretended union now existing is all meretri¬ 
cious. The heart does not participate in it; and 
I believe, from all I have seen,—and I am one of 
those who dare speak what I believe—I believe 
that there are no two nations on earth, not even 
the Russians and the English, at this day, who, at 
heart, feel more enmity towards each other than 
the men of the North and the men of the South.” 

Now, gentlemen, before I comment upon Mr. 
Wade, I wish to read an extract from another 
document :— 

“In contemplating the causes which may dis¬ 
turb our union, it occurs, as a matter of serious 
concern, that any ground should have been fur¬ 
nished for characterizing parties bv geographical 
discriminations—Northern and Southern, Atlantic 
and Western—wtience designing men may endea¬ 
vor to excite a belief that there is a real difference 
of local interests and views. One of the expedi¬ 
ents of party, to acquire influence within particu¬ 
lar districts, is to misrepresent the aims and opin¬ 
ions of other districts. You cannot shield your¬ 
selves too much against the jealousies and heart¬ 
burnings which spring from these misrepresenta¬ 
tions ; they tend to render alien to each other 
those who ought to be bound together by frater¬ 
nal afiection.” 

These, Whigs of Massachusetts, are the words 
of George Washington ! Which will you choose— 
Wade or Washinotox for your guide ? 

Now, Sir, I do not believe in the truth of these 
statements which Mr. Wade has made. It is true, 
there may be some distant approach to the truth 
in them, but I do not believe that the South and 
the North have so far forgotten the ties of a com¬ 
mon origin, a common country, and all the her¬ 
itage of glorious recollections which they share 
together—as to feel this bitter hostility to each 
other. But, certainly, there is no doubt that Mr. 
Wade, when he utters these sentiments, feels 
them ; and that he gives the countenance and sup¬ 
port which come from his position as a Senator of 
the United States to such sentiments; and I think 
that is a melancholy fact; and I think it is a mel¬ 
ancholy fact, also, that the great state of Ohio 
gives its countenance and support to a man who 
can utter such words as these. Mr. Wade is one 
of the gods of this fusion idolatry, and he is such 
a man as the Fusionists would like to see the 


whole Northern side of the Senate Chamber filled 
with. By their fruits judge them ! and by their 
fruits carried out to their legitimate consequences. 
Suppose the whole North were represented by 
men of such a spirit. The government of the 
common country could not be carried on for 
twenty-four hours. 

^ Mr. President, would not the spirit of Wash¬ 
ington have been darkened with sorrow if he 
could have foreseen that within little more than 
fifty years of his death, the rei)re6f ntative of one 
of the largest states in the Union should have 
used language so opposed to his teachings and his 
life ? And if such sentiments were to become in 
any measure common, I should expect to see the 
very sods of Mount Vernon heave with the indig¬ 
nant throbbings of the great heart that sleeps be¬ 
neath. (Loud applause.) 

Mr. President, if it were in good faith the aim 
of the fusion party to bring up the tree states gen¬ 
erally to the constitutional standard of opposition 
to slavery, where the Whig party of Massachu¬ 
setts has always stood, there would not be so much 
objection to their platform and their plan. But 
that, although their ostensible purpose, is not their 
real. That purpose is to put forth moderate reso¬ 
lutions, embracing, to a considerable degree, ab¬ 
stract propositions which we are willing to give 
our assent to, and, at the same time, to carry on a 
system of agitation upon the extremest points of 
doctrine and policy, and to keep the Northern mind 
in a state of profitless, and worse than profitless 
excitement, against slaveholders as slaveholders. 

So much for this question in its national aspect. 
Now why should the state of Massachusetts, in 
view of its state politics—why should the Whig 
party of Massachusetts, as such, give its aid to 
the fusion movement ? It seems to be only on 
the ground that the state of Massachusetts, at this 
moment, is not sufficiently an^i-slavery. Now I 
beg leave to say that the state of Massachusetts, 
upon the record, stands convicted of an excess of 
anti-slavery zeal—that is, her anti slavery zeal has 
overflov/ed the barriers of the Constitution, and 
needs rather to be checked than to be encouraged. 

The real thing that is wanted in the North is 
diffusion, and not intensity. We wouid be glad 
to transport some of our super-abundant anti-sla¬ 
very zeal into regions where they have not enough 
of it; but, instead of that, we'are increasing its 
intensity in particular places, and, by that very 
act, are preventing its diffusion, since conservative 
men, avoiding our excess, by a natural reaction 
take refuge with the Democratic party, where they 
find little or none of it. 

You have heard of the family who were 
awakened in the night by a loud knocking at 
their front door, and, on inquiry, were told not to 
disturb themselves, because the intruder was using 
their knocker to wake up his own family, some 
three or four doors off, his house not being pro¬ 
vided with that convenient appendage. Now, 
ours is a somewhat parallel case. We are not 
only wide-awake on the subject of slavery, but we 
cannot and will not go to‘sleep upon it, and we 
are kept in a state of nervous distraction by hav¬ 
ing our knocker used to wake up families ten doors 
off. 

I said that the anti-slavery zeal of Massachu¬ 
setts had overflowed the constitutional barriers, 
and I prove tlrat by a reference to the “Personal 
Liberty bill” which is upon our statute book. You 
know what that law is. I never have heard any 
apology for it, except such as is founded upon the 


12 


fact fhat other states liave passed similar uncon¬ 
stitutional enactments. You may, if you -choose, 
call that law nullification,—I call it treason. (Ap¬ 
plause.) I say that that law is treason, if I know 
what treason is, and, more than all that, Mr. Pre¬ 
sident and gentlemen, we have done what no other 
state, so far ns I know, has ever done. We have 
nullified a law wdiich the Supreme Court of our 
own state have pronounced to be constitutional; 
and does not everbody see—upon any other sub¬ 
ject they could not fail to see it—that that de¬ 
prives the state of Massachusetts of all moral 
power before the nation on the subject of slavery. 

Suppose, for instance, that any representative of 
Massachusetts should move in Congress for modi¬ 
fication of the “Fugitive Slave Law,” w'hat we 
should all desire to see brought about, for we all 
feel in Massachusetts that that contains unneces¬ 
sarily harsh and cruel provisions—I say, suppose 
a man should get up from Massachuset-s now in 
Congress, and make such a motion; what would 
be the ansu’er ? Would it not be—“Why do you 
come into Court upon this subject? You have 
nullified this law ; you have stepped out of the 
Constitution ; and do you now seek a remedy 
•within it ? You cannot be heard—you are not in 
Cburt.” Is there any answer to this? And is 
there any doubt that that is now the position of 
Massachusetts before the nation? What would 
have been the answer at the time of the South 
Carolina nullification, if she had asked for a modi¬ 
fication of the tariff? Would it not have been— 
“No, you have tendered another issue to us, and 
this we must meet before you can be heard.” 

Look, now, upon another aspect of this subject. 
This fusion movement is, substantially, like the 
combination of the Free Soil and American parties 
last year, in which the Free Soil party contrived 
to get the upper hand. At that time we had in 
the lower House of Congress a large Whig dele¬ 
gation, an eminently able and estimable delega¬ 
tion, and I say that the opposition which they of¬ 
fered to the Nebraska iniquity was as strong and 
effective as could have been presented by the same 
number of men from any part or party of the 
Northern states. But just in proportion as the 
Legislature of Massachusetts went on in their an¬ 
ti-slavery extravagances, was the moral power of 
those gentlemen weakened at Washington, and if 
they had remained there until the “Personal Lib¬ 
erty bill” was passed, they would have had no 
moral weight whatever upon the subject of slavery. 

Now the State of Massachusetts is called upon 
to desert the party w'hich sent to the last Congress 
a delegation second to none upon the floor of the 
house, and join a party which has sent to the pre- 
sen* Congress a delegation that is Jirst to none. 

Then again, there are state issues which demand 
the instant attention of the Whig party. Look¬ 
ing at the Legislature of last winter,—I do not 
merply speak of its unconstitutional anti-slavery 
action—but looking at the whole course of legis¬ 
lation, at the reckless temper manifested in regard 
to property, at the headlong spirit of innovation 
in which the great subject of marriage was ap¬ 
proached, and the property relations of husband 
and wife were dealt with, it becomes the duty of 
every Whig to give his aid in sending to the 
Legislature men who will act with more wisdom, 
more dignity, more moderation, not that the com¬ 
mon law relations between husband and wife up¬ 
on the subject of property are not susceptible of 
amendment, but the reformer should approach 
them with more knowledge and more thoughtful¬ 
ness. 


I need not speak, gentlemen, of the general 
want of decorum and dignity which characterized 
the proceedings of the last Legislature; nor need 
I recall those unbecoming and unworthy acts 
which are so fresh in your memories, and which 
have so mortified every man who felt a pride in the 
history and character of the state. But, I say, 
upon many points we want a change in the legis¬ 
lative spirit which controlled our Commonwealth 
the last winter, and will control it the next, should 
the Fusion party prevail. 

Then, again, there is the “liquor la'W'.” I do 
not suppose we are all exactly of one mind upon 
this subject, but I do say the liquor question is 
tone which we must meet; and I say further, that 
there is no safety, except in adopting the principle 
that we must cease to prohibit and begin to regu¬ 
late. (Cheers.) There is no other course, and 
every person who looks on this subject dispassion- 
atel^will come to the conclusion that, at least, in 
the section of the sta e I have the honor to repre¬ 
sent, the liquor law has not only increased the 
evil of intemperance, but it has created a disregard 
of law' as a rule of conduct, which I consider a 
great evil. It matters not Avhat law’s w'e pass, if, 
in the passage of any one law, we strike at the 
principle of loyalty to law’ itself. 

Mr. President, i have draw’ii up a few proposi¬ 
tions, embodying the substance of my arguments 
against the proposed fusion, and I will so far tax 
the patience of the Convention as to read them. 
They are as follows :— 

The Whigs of Massachusetts, as part and parcel 
of the national Whig party, decline to join the 
fusion party, for the followdng reasons : 

Because the proposed party is an impossible 
one—the free states not being willing and read)’to 
give up all other general issues, and all local and 
particular issues whatever, to combine themselves 
into an anti-slavery party; 

Because such a party, if possible, w’ould not be 
desirable or expedient, as such a party must be, 
in point of fact, whatever its professions to the 
contrary might be, a geographical and sectional 
party; 

Because the Northern Whig party has always 
presented a constitutional opposition to slavery, 
and a fusion party can do no more, or at least 
should do no more ; 

Because the organization of a perty on the sole 
basis of anti-slavery, besides cutting off all possible 
co-operation at the South, wdll in reality weaken 
the anti-slavery feeling at the North ; because it 
will drive men of conservative tendencies into the 
ranks of the Democrac), who will of necessity 
take the ground of non-agitation more completely 
than ever; 

Because the attempt to form such a party, being 
unsuccessful, must of necessity strengthen the 
Democratic party of the North, which has ever 
been the ally of the slave power ; 

Because the dangers from the aggressive spirit 
of the South have been greatly exaggerated. The 
fate of slavery and of the colored race depend in 
a great measure upon elements beyond the control 
of the national Legislature, and the rapid increase 
of the free states, and the great excess of their in¬ 
crease over that of the slave states, must soon 
give them a great preponderance of weight in any 
issue on this question; 

Because we feel assured that the Free Soil fu- 
sionists, in spite of the moderation of these reso¬ 
lutions, will proceed to ventilate and agitate the 
most extreme propositions, and thus keep the pub- 


13 


He mind in a state of profitless exasperation and 
irritation upon a subject which most of all re¬ 
quires to be calmly, rationally, and dispassionate¬ 
ly treated ; 

Because the formation of such a party tends 
tow’ards disunion ; since if carried out and suc¬ 
cessful it must fill the offices of government with 
men who cannot act with slaveholders, and with 
whom slaveholders cannot act: 

Bpcause such a party tends to create a hostile 
feeling between North and South, which every 
patriot must deprecate, from which no good can 
come to anybody, least of all to the colored race, 
bond or free; 

As members of the Whig party of* Massachu¬ 
setts we decline to join the Fusion party. 

Because the present election is a state election, 
and has nothing to do directly and immediately 
with national issues; 

Because it is the primary duty of the Whigs of 
Massachusetts to rescue the state from the party 
W'ho now control it, and whose legislative policy 
is perilous to the best interests of the community ; 

Because Massachusetts can do nothing, in its 
state capacity, on the subject of slavery, which is 
not inconsistent with her obligations to the Con¬ 
stitution, and her duties to the common country ; 

Because Massachusetts already, under the influ¬ 
ences of a wild anti-slavery zeal, has solemnly 
nullified a law of the United States, w'hich our 
own Supreme Court has pronounced to be consti¬ 
tutional, and has thus deprived hei'self of all 
moral power on the subject of slavery before the 
Union; 

Because men elected to state offices, merely 
from their anti-slavery zeal, must either keep the 
state in its present attitude of unconstitutional op¬ 
position to slavery or push it still farther in that 
direction; 

Because while slavery presents no state issue, 
there are state issues of importance, which w*e de¬ 
sire to present to the people for their deliberate 
judgment; 

Because the real object of the fusion agitation is 
to elevate men to office which they could not 
reach, or to keep them in offices which they could 
not have reached but for the constant, heating ap¬ 
peals which have been made and are making to 
the anti-slavery sentiment of the state ; 

Because no National Whig can support the gu¬ 
bernatorial candidate of the Fusion party; since 
he was taken and Governor Gardner was rejected, 
because the latter would not remove Judge Bor¬ 
ing and vetoed the Personal Liberty bill, both 
which acts met the cordial approbation of the 
Whig party ; 

Because the fusionists, whatever may be their 
professions, and however moderate their resolu¬ 
tions, do distinctly present to the people of Mas¬ 
sachusetts a choice between union principles and 
disunion principles, and the Whig party will never 
give its countenance, directly or indirectly, to dis¬ 
union ; 

And now I have only to ask the Whig party of 
Massachusetts to be true to themselves and true to 
the principles which have done so much to make 
Massachusetts what she is. Let us cling to those 
sound doctrines and that wise policy in which our 
own state and*our common country can alike find 
the sources of happiness and prosperity. Togeth¬ 
er we have stood, shoulder to shoulder, in many a 
well-fought field, and at the close of the contest 
seen the lights of victory playing round our ban¬ 
ners and our w'eapons. But now another dicipline 


is trying the tempe’* ef nnr souls. The scep¬ 
tre of success has passed for the present into 
other hands, and the gilded swarm ot summer 
friends has flown elsewhere in search of the sun¬ 
shine of popular favor. Be it so. Faithful hearts 
are welded together by defeat, and noble affections 
are strengthened by^ adversity. Not alone from 
old triumphs but from recent checks let us draw 
the elements of energy and endurance. J^et dis¬ 
couragement animate us—let disaster rouse us to 
new efforts—let us extract from defeat itself the 
cordial of hope. In the night that darkens around, 
us, let not despair weaken our hearts; let not dis¬ 
order lessen our force ; let not desertion thin our 
ranks. Let the watch-fires be trimmed ; let the 
sentinels walk their rounds ; let every man know 
his place, and heed his leader’s voice. Watch¬ 
man, what of the night ? The morning cometh 
and also the night. Yes, the morning cometh 
—for us it cometh. (Vociferous applause, and 
cheering long continued.) 

Prof. Fowler of Amherst follow*ed and made 
an earnest speech, endorsing the platform and the 
candidate for Governor. 

Mr. Kimball, from the Committee on Votes for 
Lieutenant Governor, reported the following to be 
the result:— 


Whole number of votes...416 

Necessary for a choice.209 

Moses Davenport of Newburyport had.221 

Charles H Plunkett of Hinsdale.99 

Jesse Murdock of Carver. 73 

James M. Thompson of Springfield.15 

William C. Plunkett of Adams. 4 

T. L. Crocker of Taunton... 1 

V George P. Richaruson of Worcester. I 

Seth Sprague of Boston. 1 

P. C. Edwards. 1 

Mr. Davenport was declared to be the nomi¬ 
nee amid loud applause. 

Gen. Oliver submitted the following:— 

Whole number of votes for Secretary of State.209 

Wendell T. Davis, of Greenfield, had.208 

Henry W. Kinsman, of Newburyport. 1 

Whole number of votes for Attorney General.211 

Reuben A. Chapman, of Springfield, had-....201 

George S. Hillard, of Boston... 6 

John H. Clifford, of New Bedford. 2 

Otis P. Lord, of Salem. 2 

Whole number of votes for Treasurer.187 

John Sargent of Cambridge, had.187 

Whole number of votes for Auditor was.244 

Joseph Mitchell, of Boston, had.244 


And Messrs. Davis, Chapman, Sargent and 
Mitchell were declared to be the nominees of 
the Convention. 

The question was now stated to be on the pas¬ 
sage ot the resolutions. 

Mr. Shaw, of Abington, moved a division of the 
question; but his motion was rejected, and the 
resolutions, as a whole, were adopted with una¬ 
nimity. 

SECOND SPEECH OF MR. WALLEY. 

Mr. Wallet, having endeavored to obtain the 
floor before the question w*as taken on the reso¬ 
lutions, but failed to make his voice reach the 
President’s ear, now rose and said:— 

Mr. President,—I was not able to catch your 
ear before the question was put upon the resolu- 
tians; it makes no difference now the vote has 
been taken. My object in rising was to say that 
when I had the honor of appearing upon the 
platform this morning, I was overwhelmed with 

























14 


surprise at the honor which this Convention had 
conferrod upon me ; for I must say that I consid¬ 
ered the nomination of this Convention, v/ith such 
men as arc here assembled, and with such princi¬ 
ples as have brought them together and actuates 
them, as a great honor and a great compliment; 
and I will say that I should esteem defeat at the 
polls, acting with such men, as a greater honor 
than success with either of the other parties in the 
field. (Cheers). 

J rose, however, with another purpose, at his 
time. It was to say to you, that when I was upon 
the platform this morning, nothing had been said 
upon the principles which were to actuate us in 
this Campaign, and having since heard those reso¬ 
lutions, and noticed the action of the ('onvention in 
the affiimance of them, I have only to say that 
they meet with my entire and hearty approbation. 
(Loud cheers.) 

Let me say to you gentlemen, and the people of 
this Commonwealth, that never has there been a 
moment since the existence of a government in 
this State, when the conduct of the people in ref¬ 
erence to principles was of more consequence than 
at the present moment. 

Sir, we have started upon two different rpacls— 
one goes to sustain the Constitution of the United 
States, the other goes to nullification and dis 
union. (Loud cheers, and cries of “ good ! 
good !”) We may say nothing about iniivid- 
uals ; we must talk now straight out about prin¬ 
ciples. I read, sir, only this very morning, that 
the demand of the Garrison party is now for a dis¬ 
solution of the Union. They .say nothing can be 
done to suppress the evil of slavery until this 
Union is dissolved. That is frank and manly ; 
they speak out what they mean. But we have 
another party which tells us that in order to pre¬ 
vent the extension of slavery it is necessary to ig¬ 
nore the Whig party ; that alone, they say, will 
answer the purpose. Sir, that is only the first 
siep ; take that and you must take another ; that 
is only the first step dovMiwards. 

If you form one sectional party, Amu must an¬ 
other and another; if you have said A, you must 
go on to the end of the alphabet; and I forewarn 
gentlemen now, that if they take one step in that 
course, they cannot stop anywhere short of a dis¬ 
solution of the Union. , (Loud applause.) The 
simple question now before the people of the 
Commonwealth is :—II- ve you calculated the 
value of the Union, and are you ijrepcied to sur¬ 
render it—or do you intend to stand by the Con¬ 
stitution of this country and to hand down the 
blessings you have enjoyed, unimpaired, to your 
posterity? If so, let national principles alone. 
We have no national offices to be filled at the 
coming election ; attend, therefore, to your own 
slate, and let national questions alone until next 
year ; and do nothing to compromise your fidelity 
to tlie Union and the Constitution. (Applause.) 

Mr. Asi’iNAVALL, fiom the Committee on the 
Platform, reported the following additional reso¬ 
lutions :— 

Resolved, That wm unanimously' recommend 
Sj*muel H. Walley of Roxbury' for vhe office of 
Governor, as eminently fitted by his juiva4,e vir¬ 
tues, by his long advocacy of Massachusetts in¬ 
terests in the state Legislature, and by'his bold as¬ 
sertion and untiring defence of Northern rights in 
the national Congress, lor the first place in the 
Commonwealth he has loved so well. 

Resolved, That we unanimously nominate for 


the suffrages of their fellow citizens, Moses DAVE:f 
POUT, of Newburyport, for the office of Lieutenant 
Governor ; Wendell T. Davis, of Greenfield, for 
the office of Secretary of the Commonw'ealth ; 
Reuben A. Chapman, of Springfieldj for the office 
of Attorney General; John Sakoent, of Cam¬ 
bridge, for the office of Treasurer; and Joseph 
Mitchell, of Boston, for the office of Auditor, 
as citizens of unblemished private character, as 
eminently fitted by their talents to fill the offices 
for which we have named them, and as tried, 
steadfast and unseduced Whigs, whom the allure¬ 
ments of office can never lead to betray their 
party, or desert its principles. 

The lion. Otis P. Lord of Salem Avas called for. 
lie responded in substance as follows :— 

Mr. President,—This is a Whig meeting. 
(Laughter and applause.) I meant once to come 
to a Whig meeting ami hear without being heard. 
I have been somewliat accustomed of late years to 
attending those meetings which have been called 
Whig, but until to-day since some fifteen years 
ago, in this very place, I have not before seen the 
real Whig spirit roused—that wliich has the ring 
of the true metal. To-day Ave are Whig, and we 
are not anything else, (Laughter and applause.) 
AVe have no outsiders to catch to-day; we have 
no baits to throw to any gudgeons. We stand to¬ 
day Whigs upon Whig principles, and Ave stand 
there or Ave fall. (Cheers and cries of “good— 
good.”) 

It does one good to see a regular old-fashioned 
political meeting—one based upon some kind of 
politics other than to see who can get the most 
votes in a scrub race, (laughter) and to-d.iy we 
* have pi*esented to us not only a platform such as 
Ave have all cordially united upon, and are ready 
to sustain, but Ave have standard-bearers to repre- 
ent us in sustaining and carrying forward thos ^ 
principles such as are worthy of us and worthy of 
the Commonwealth. 

To clay, Mr. President, after the ballot for Gov¬ 
ernor had taken place, as I saw my worthy' and 
most respected iriend pass up the aisle and come 
upon this platform, I remembered that only' one 
year ago such a fusion as nobody'ever before heard 
of, and such a fusion as nobody hereafter will ev¬ 
er hear of, had swept him, as it had other patriots 
and statesmen, from the jiublic service, and put 
untried, unknown men into their places, and I 
thought that the voice of such an assembly as 
this, if it could be tendered to me as it was to 
him, would ten thousand times compensate for all 
the mortification—if any body could be mortified, 
(loud laughter and applause) of a stab in the back 
in the dark. (Renewed applause.) 

No open foe in a fair field ever caused the Whigs 
of Massachusetts *to quail before it. (Cheers). If 
they are beaten down it is in a bush fight, or in 
the dark, or by a treacherous blow. The Whigs 
of Massachusetts, upon the principles which tliey 
have advocated, upon the principles which have 
made Massachusetts what she is, openly' maintain 
themselves against the world. But a new era is 
dawning ; a Republican party has sprung into ex- 
istence«| but I have not seen, with the excc-ption 
of our late respected fellow citizen, (laughter) who 
has been picked out from among us to see how 
many can be taken away,—with that exception, 
among all those leaders I have not seen one, no, 
not one, that Avas not last year in the other fusion. 
AVhy, gentlemen, you remember that last year we 
said that the party which had been organized 


15 


down cellar, or somewhere out of sight—that par- 
t}’ wnich was called in Virginia “the dark lantern 
oligarchy”—were merely puppets, the wires to 
w’hich were pulled by a magician, who meant to 
W’arm a cushion for himself in the United States 
Sen ate—but our good Iriends said to, ‘*0 you are 
mistaken ; let us all go into that party and man¬ 
age it.” And they went in one after another in 
order to manage the Know Nothings, and keep 
Wilson out of the Senate. (Laughter). 

Well, this year these same good-natured friends 
say—“This fusion is a great thing, after all; and 
now, which is best,” say they, solemnly, “that 
good men, good Whigs, should take hold and get 
the management of that movement, or shall w'e 
let other men get the management r” No, it is 
best for the Whigs to go into it; and so they take 
hold of it in order to get the management. They 
get the management, and then they nominate four 
out of the six candidates from the old Know 
Nothing or American party, which they last year 
meant to manage. 

Who is at the head of this fusion movement? 
Why, no less a personage—I don’t mean to call 
names, and there is nobody here at whom I can 
nod to indicate to whom I allude—but it is just 
that man who said he had been a member of ev¬ 
ery political party in Massachusetts, and had left 
every political party, and he meant to leave every 
political party just as soon as they ceased to con¬ 
form to his principles; and when you find out 
what his principles are, you will know when he 
w*ill leave you. (Laughter and applause.) 

1 said, Mr. President, I did not mean to make 
a speech- -I do not. But I w'ant to congratulate 
myself and this great assembly upon the cheering 
prospects before us—the prospecr that we are to 
have a party that has to search for candidates in¬ 
stead of having a party made merely for the pur¬ 
pose of advancing particular men. (Cheers.) 
And that I hold to be the great triumph, this hour 
of the Whig party. 

I say this is the great matter on which we may 
congratulate ourselves. They may call us a small 
party, hut if we are small, we are somewhat en¬ 
ergetic ; there is a little strength left somewhere. 
I though once or twice, to-day, these rafters must 
have been pretty w-ell secured. (Applause.) But 
this party is not a small party in Massachusetts. 
I do not care what extreneous influence may call 
one man and another away to-day; the great 
heart of Massachusetts is Whig to the core, (Loud 
cheers.) You cannot cheat Massachusetts three 
times with the same delusion ; you may n ake co¬ 
alition go twice, you may make secret political 
machinery work once, possibly, and fusion may 
wmvk once ; but I say you cannot cheat the people 
of Massachusetts three times in the same way. 
They are an honest people—they are a confiding 
peojde, but they are intelligent enough to see to 
it that they are not cheated three times in the 
same manner. I take it that if the people of 
Massachusetts are what I believe them to be, we 
shall have a change this fall, and the Whig prin¬ 
ciples of Massachusetts will gain a triumph, and 
the Whig men of Massachusetts will again be en¬ 
trusted w’ith the rule of this Commonwealth. 

I think uur friends (wdiose brains, I speak it 
with all deference, seem to be a little addled on 
this subject,) who speak of the Whig party as 
dead, will shortly feel very much as the man did 
who had taken a pretty heavy dinner, and some¬ 
thing to secure digestion, (laughter) and riding on 


the top of a stage, tumbled himself off, and on 
getting up wanted to know if the stage was n't 
upset. (Laughter.) That is the notion of those 
men who sup{)ose they have upset the Whig 
party ; when they think there is indubiinblc evi¬ 
dence that the Whig party has “ceased to exist,” 
they have only tumbled off themselves—tkiit is 
all. The old coach is right side up tn-day, j.nd 
she has a driver now who will put lier ilirnugh. 
(Great cheering.) 

I feel, Mr. President, that there is a duty in¬ 
cumbent upon me, and upon every citizen of this 
Commonwealth, in the present crisis. Nobody 
knows what sort of legislation we had last winter. 
By and by we will begin to feel its enormity. By 
and by, when the harbor of Boston is utterly ruin¬ 
ed by giving away a hundred acres to one corpor¬ 
ation, and fifty to seventy-five to another, with 
liberty to fill up that harbor without notice to 
anybody, then you will begin to feel the evil ef¬ 
fects of that legislature. By and by the people 
will feel the legislation ■which was had last win¬ 
ter in relation to that sacred cojntract of marriage 
W'hich, except for mere cohabitation, is wholly 
annulled, yet nobody’s eyes seemed to be opened 
to this matter. But this w'as just such legislation 
as you would expect from men who are wholly 
new ane wholly unacquainted with the subjects 
w'ith which they w'ere dealing. By and by the 
people -will understand these matters and feel their 
injurious effects, unless indeed, as I hope and 
trust—I do not say I believe—but hope and trust 
a good sound administration next sea-on will pipe 
out, as with a sponge, about four-fifths of all that 
was done by last 3 'ear’s legislature. (Cheers.) 

Mr. President, in that most admirable address 
W’hich I had the pleasure of listening to from your 
lips this morning, there w'as no single sentence 
W’hich met a more cordial and sympathising re¬ 
sponse from my heart than that which said that it 
W’as only the honorable acts of the Executive which 
permitted the doings the doings of the last Legisla¬ 
ture to be characterised as even decent, (Cheers.) I 
w’ish gentlemen w’hen they go home would get one 
of those books for the people, one of those Town 
Clerk’s volumes of law’s, and read it. If they 
have not opportunity to send it in the day time, let 
them read it in the evening ; and if they are not 
able to read it in the evening, let them do so on 
Sunday, for it is work sufficiently holy to justify 
even that, to learn what the Legislature of last 
year undertook to do. I want to know, sir, why 
we hesitate to speak of the doings of that Legis¬ 
lature—of its Nunnery Commiiiees, luvestigaiing 
Committees, and all? Why do we not speak of 
them to-day ? It is simply because you cannot 
speak of them without a Hiss ing upon your 
tongues. (Tumultuous applause.) 

But, Mr. President, I have detained you too 
long. I did not mean to make a s])eech, and I 
will only add, that I thank this great meeting for 
the kindness wdiich they have manifested towards 
me. 

Mr. Ellis of Carver, from the Committee 
charged w’ith the duty of nominating a State Cen¬ 
tral Committee, stated that they had attended to 
that service and w’ere ready to report:—They have 
ventured to make the number of members at 
large thirteen, being the number of our Senators 
and Ilepresentatives in Congress, and this a<ldi- 
tion to the number they recommenrl to the accep- 


16 


tance of tlie Convention. They present the fol- 
fowing names:— 

AT LARGE. 

Hon. Luther V. Bell of Somerville. 

Hon. ^Vm. Aspinwall of Brookline. 

Thomas Simmons, Esq., of Roxbury. 

John S. Holmes, Esq., of Boston. 

Charles H. French, Esq., of Canton. 

■NVendell T. Davis, Esq., of Greenfield. 

T. H. Sweetser, Esq., of Lowell. 

Col. N. A. Thompson of Boston. 

W. C. Endicott, Esq., of Salem. 

Hon. Frederick 0. Prince of Winchester. 

Oscar Edwards, Esq., of Northampton. 

Arthur L. Devens, Esq., of Ware. 

Thomas Macy, Esq., of Nantucket. 

DISTRICTS. 

District No. 1—F. H. Jenkins of Barnstable. 

“ “ 2—Philand. Washburn, Middleboro. 

“ “ 3—N. W Coffin of Dorchester. 

H o 4 —Otis Kimball ot Boston. 


“ “ 5—Harvey Jewell of Boston. 

** “ 6—R C. Iluse of Newburyport. 

“ “ 7—James Dana of Charlestown. 

M “ 8—W. E. Faulkner of Acton. 

“ “ 9—Charles Devens, Jr.,of Worcester. 

“ “ 10—J. L. King, 2d, of Springfield. 

“ “ 11—James D. Colt, 2d, of Pittsfield. 

The report was accepted. 

The thanks of the Convention were voted to Mr. 
Stevenson and the other officers. Three cheers 
W'ere given for the nominees, for Mr. Stevenson, 
for Mr. Lord, for Mr. Hillard, and the Conven¬ 
tion, at 5 1-2 o’clock, having discharged the busi¬ 
ness for which it assembled, adjourned. 

It is due that W’e should say that it W'as a great 
gathering. The weather •was unpleasant and 
rainy; but the spirits of the Whigs were buoyant 
and cheerful. 








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